In October, a probe into Goldman Sachs‘ involvement in the international 1MDB embezzlement scandal settled with the investment bank paying $2.9 billion in fines. As a result, COO David Solomon – who moonlights as a disc jockey under the alias DJ D-Sol – has taken a 36% pay cut reducing his 2020 earnings by $10 million.
1MDB was a Malaysian economic development fund from which $4.5 billion was siphoned away in a scheme between officials overseeing the fund and high-profile figures around the globe. The money was then used to purchase hotels, rare artwork, and other assets including seed capital for Las Vegas superclub Hakkasan and the 2013 film Wolf of Wall Street. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has moved to seize a record $2.1 billion in assets around the globe tied to money embezzled from 1MDB.
Investigations determined that Goldman Sachs underwrote bonds tied to the fund in at least 14 countries, collecting $600 million in fees. The DOJ found the investment bank in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids companies from providing financial incentives to foreign officials who earn them more business.
A Goldman Sachs filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission argues Solomon was not “involved in or aware of the firm’s participation in illicit activity at the time the firm arranged the 1MDB bond transactions,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Other executives have been fined or, in some cases, permanently banned from working in the banking industry.
David Solomon previously made the wrong kind of headlines in July for sharing the stage with EDM duo The Chainsmokers at a Southampton concert at which attendees and staff flouted social distancing guidelines imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19. Following a New York State Department of Health investigation, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that organizers would be fined $20,000.
